


pictures worth a thousand words

by sadlmfao



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Bad Parents Jack and Janet Drake, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Good Sibling Dick Grayson, Jason Todd Has a Heart, Photography, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, can we just start with that, he makes tim eggs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:02:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29255631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadlmfao/pseuds/sadlmfao
Summary: So maybe Tim enrolled in a photography competition, but it was only because he had slept through his art class for the last two weeks and the only way his teacher would pass him is if he promised to sign up.That doesn't make it a big deal.Why is his family making it a big deal?OR: Tim joins a competition and finally gets the love he deserves.
Relationships: Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson, Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Comments: 19
Kudos: 484





	pictures worth a thousand words

Tim thought maybe he had mentioned it in passing, but only because it was relevant to the conversation. Outside of that, it was probably the most meaningless thing he actually put work into. Key word being _the most meaningless_.

Yeah he had enrolled in a photography competition, but it was only because he had slept through his art class for the last two weeks and the only way his teacher would pass him is if he promised to sign up. Also, he really didn’t want to have a GPA more fucked up than he was, so it didn’t take a huge amount of convincing...

Regardless, tomorrow at five o’clock he’d be standing next to a bunch of other nerds who were all way too pompous about their black and white picture of Fluffy the cat. Tim wasn’t really bothered about it. He had done worse things in his life, and if this saved his grade he might as well show a little initiative. (If only his parents could see him right now. From somewhere in Brazil, Janet would be screaming.)

Tim bit back a smile at the thought before focusing back in on his laptop. He had a little bit of down time before school and was currently looking through the camera roll saved to his computer. A lot of the pictures were blurry, because he hadn’t thought to fine tune any of them yet, but a few had potential. He had the fleeting thought to just send in a few random pictures, but his art teacher would probably know he’s bullshitting. Seriously, the woman has way too much faith in him.

“Hey Replacement.” Jason came into the kitchen with a huge yawn. He stubbed his toe on the counter and growled at it conversationally.

“Morning Jay.” Tim mumbled. He took another sip of his coffee and side eyed his older brother as he pulled out ingredients to make breakfast. He didn’t trust anyone that could function before at least one cup of coffee.

Soon the sizzling of eggs filled the kitchen, and his apprehension was gone.

“Whatcha making?” He asked, even though he already knew. Jason glared at him.

“Nothing.”

“Really?” Tim drawled.

Jason seemed to consider this for a moment. “Yes.”

Tim sighed heavily and left it at that, scrolling back through pictures. When he finally found a few that seemed good enough, he sent them to the printer at school. He could pick them up once he got there. (And it gave him a good excuse to be late to Math.) By the time he started putting things into his backpack, Jason laid down a plate of eggs in front of him.

“I had extra.” He shrugged. Tim grinned.

\---

Needless to say, ‘tomorrow night’ came pretty fucking fast. After that breakfast, the day had blown past him in a storm. He doesn’t really remember a lot of school other than one kid asking him for homework answers and another girl asking him when he got _so pretty_ (because girls were weird like that). It was kind of an interesting combination of things to recall, so when he finally stopped by seventh period art to turn in his portfolio, his brain was only half working. He thought that his teacher would just take them and let him fall back asleep, but. She did not.

“These are exquisite, Tim.” Mrs. Harrison said, a warm grin on her face as she flipped through them. He tried not to choke.

“Uh- thanks.” He managed, studying the laces of his converse before crossing his arms. _Haha. I can take on Ra’s Al Ghul and win but I cannot take a_ compliment, he thinks. _Funny._

“Yes. Wow, if I had known you were holding back on me this much, I would’ve forced you to do AP Photography.” She murmured. “What was your thought process for this one? With the lighting, the shadows?”

Tim glanced between her and the photo she was mentioning. It was one he took off the streets of Gotham- probably one of his favorites, though he’d never admit it. It had encapsulated a Gotham skyline, where the moon was right above the outline of buildings and shouldered the sin of the city below it. He had taken it on a night years ago, when he had thought about what it would be like to jump off. He didn’t end up doing it, instead pulling out his camera, but the picture did mean something to him. He wondered why, then, he was putting it on display for others to judge. (He had learned a long time ago putting your heart out there will only leave you with an empty feeling in your chest.) Remembering the question belatedly, he answered,

“It was during one of my late night coffee runs, and I just thought it’d look cool from up high, so...”

Mrs. Harrison watched him for a long, terrifying moment before patting him on the shoulder. “It’s very good, Tim.” She smiled and carefully set the portfolio on the stack of others. Taking it as a dismissal, he turned to leave when she said,

“I hope one day you share the thought process behind them all.” He turned quizzically to her, feeling caught in her emerald gaze. “They truly are brilliant.”

He swallowed, opening his mouth to reply then closing it. “Thank you-”

“Don’t thank me.” She replied kindly, “Just show up tonight.”

Tim wandered back to his seat with a warm feeling spread through his chest. He couldn’t remember the last time someone took a genuine interest in him- in Tim Drake, not Red Robin- and asked about something he was interested in.

It was a feeling he knew he shouldn’t grow accustomed to.

\---

“Oh shit.” Tim tumbled down the stairs, hitting the bottom and bouncing to his feet. “Shit, shit, shit-”

“That’s like, seventy for the swear jar!” Dick yelped, eyes wide as he hurtled over the dinner table to cover Damian’s ears.

“That’s my boy.” Jason said dramatically, wiping a fake tear.

“Are you not going to be with us for dinner, Master Tim?” Alfred said, setting down the chicken parmesan with an unimpressed look. Tim smiled sheepishly.

“I’m sorry Alfred. I forgot to tell you about this thing I have tonight, and-”

“What thing?” Steph said, piping up from her place at the table. She was leaned all the way back in her chair, right on the brink of tipping over. Dick grinned and started tipping his chair back too, much to Bruce’s chagrin.

“Just some photography contest. It’s just to get my art teacher off my back.” He muttered, grabbing a carrot from the spread while he waited for the coffee machine to finish filling his thermos.

“Holy shit, she signed you up for that?” Steph said, leaning forwards. Her chair hit the floor with a thud and somewhere far away Alfred shed a tear at the new scratch on his floor.

“Yeah. Why?” Tim said around his carrot. Damian glared at him.

“I heard some nerds talking about it while I was literally hiding in the library-”

“-No shit, they hunt you down for dress code again?” Tim interrupted with a grin. Her eye roll said it all, and he laughed.

“- Shut the fuck up. They said that it was a big deal, though. The winner was getting some kind of trip to study photography for a week in New York.”

“Why New York? Shit sucks.” Jason wrinkled his nose. Dick booped him and was promptly tackled to the floor.

“OW!”

“Doubt I’ll win anyway.” Tim scoffed, grabbing his thermos.

“Not true.” Cass piped up, being the best sibling ever that she was.

“If it’s that big of a deal, why didn’t you tell us?” Bruce asked. “I’d like to come.”

Tim choked, spluttering as he tried to keep his coffee in his mouth. Bruce watched, alarmed. “Wh-what?” He said with a laugh. “Why would you go to a stupid photo contest?”

“For you, dumbass.” Jason chimed in from where he was pinning Dick to the floor. “Now don’t you _ever_ boop my nose again-”

“Like this?”

“Motherfucker!”

“Boys!” Bruce yelled. They froze. “I’m trying to have a conversation. Will you please quiet down?”

Reluctantly, Jason got off Dick. “Whatever.”

“Sorry.” Dick mumbled before straightening. “Wait, I wanna go to your thing too, Tim!”

“Why?” He repeated, incredulous. Tim thought funnily enough that not even his own parents were showing up, and that even if they weren’t on the other side of the world, they still wouldn’t. Why, if you asked them? Because a _contest of any sorts is trivial and meaningless, especially when it’s photography. I mean, where does photography get you in life? It’s just a bunch of paper-_ Woah, Tim stopped himself. Sounding a little too much like his dad there.

“Because it’s something you like.” Bruce said, as if it was obvious.

“Right.” Tim said disbelievingly. “Well, whatever. I’m about to be late, so I gotta go. Sorry Alfie!”

“Good luck!” Steph hollered.

\---

Tim thought to himself now that it actually might have been nice to invite some company. Not even someone to talk about his photos to, no, he wouldn’t subject them to that level of boredom- just someone to hang out with. Damian, even.

It was incredibly boring sitting in the Gotham Academy auditorium behind a table of his own photos. It felt a little vain too, and he couldn’t imagine doing something like this again. The guy in the table next to him, Aaron, had gone on for years and years about his technique and camera and likes and dislikes and- and when it had come to Tim, he didn’t really know what to say.

Yes, these were his pictures.

Yes haha, he had climbed up pretty high to take that one. Good ol’ fire escapes.

Y’know, he’s actually not sure the vision behind that architecture picture. It just looked nice.

Tim had years of experience not bothering people about his hobbies (it got easy enough when there was no one taking interest in him), so having to spill all his photographic secrets to these people felt a little odd for him, and he found himself playing everything down as a result. As soon as they left, Mrs. Harrison was there, standing before him with a grin bright enough to give Dick a run for his money.

“Tim! Glad to see you here.” She murmured, glancing over his table. “I like the spread.”

“Thank you.” He replied, already fidgeting under her attention.

“Of course. Do you… have any family here?” She asked, head tipped to the side a little. That was something Tim had noticed. Every single kid there had one or both parents standing by or waiting with them. It was nice, knowing most of the Gotham student population had a loving family. On the off chance his parents have absolutely nothing better to do- and by that he means, it’s die in a car crash or show up- they might have come too.

Yay.

“Nope.” He replied, fighting to not lean back in his chair. Harrison looked confused then.

“Why not?”

Good question. Why _don’t_ his parents love him?

“Parents are out of town so I’m staying with the Waynes. And I forgot to tell them, so… here we are.” Tim said, cracking a wry grin. Something indecipherable flashed on her face before she cast a small smile towards his photo spread- the Gotham landscape, the one she asked about earlier.

“Well. I know who I’ll be voting for.” And with that, she was gone, leaving him in her wake.

He couldn’t help but wonder what possessed her to care.

\---

Tim won. He didn’t know how, or why, but he won. It was nearing ten o’clock when he finally got home and despite kind of having done nothing today, he felt exhausted. Throwing down his portfolio and awards, he settled in next to the espresso machine for another long night.

“Geez Tim-bit. You look like a gremlin.”

Tim did not shriek. He didn’t.

But he had failed to notice Jason sitting on the counter across from him doing casework.

“Hm.” He replied. Jason had moved on anyway.

“No shit, you did all this?” He picked up a few of the awards, looking at all of them and then glancing at Tim with a weird look on his face. Not really feeling like getting made fun of, Tim just shrugged.

“Dunno. Fell asleep halfway through.”

Jason looked hesitant for a moment, before nodding to his folder. “Mind if I look at your pictures?”

Tim narrowed his eyes but nodded. Jason would probably give him shit about ‘wow, the standards for first place must’ve been incredibly low’ or, ‘are you sure you didn’t steal these awards?’ or something like that. It was expected. His stuff wasn’t good, not really, and even if it wasn’t enough people had treated it like shit for him to believe it anyway.

His coffee had finally brewed, and he was halfway through his first cup when he heard a huff from behind him. Turning, Jason was holding one of his pictures. There was a soft smile on his face, looking completely out of place on Jason of all people, but there all the same. His eyes looked a little misty as he flipped through them, brow furrowed as he analyzed them.

“This is some good shit, Tim.” He said after a minute.

Tim froze, unsure of what to do. He could handle it when things like this were dismissed, or sneered at or shoved to the side. He was a lot worse at receiving praise, though.

“Uh… thanks?”

“Tim! You’re home!” Dick flounced into the room then. He wrapped him up in a hug, burying his face in his neck and squeezing him. “I wanna to see your pictures- move Jay!” He was suddenly let go of so Dick could clamber up next to Jason, putting his head on his shoulder to see the photos. A wave of embarrassment washed over Tim.

“They really aren’t that big of a deal.” He murmured.

“Shut up. You took all of these?” Jason said. He was still looking between the photos like it was actually something worthwhile, like Tim was something worthwhile, and the thought made his heart squeeze in his chest. Dick paused at a picture of an ashtray, smoke still rising from the cigarette as the sun began to rise behind it. Tim looked away, too nervous to see his reaction.

“Yeah. In my spare time it can be fun to- I don’t know. Take pictures, and stuff.” He winced at how stupid he sounds, but neither of his brothers seem to notice.

“Holy shit. Can I make a copy of this for my apartment? Please?” Dick looked up at him with huge blue eyes, but for once the attention doesn’t make him feel trapped. He still didn’t understand why Dick would want it plastered all over his place, but whatever. He’d be lying if it didn’t make him feel a little good.

“Uh, sure. I can send you the digital version?”

“That’d be great!” Dick said, as if Tim has done him a great favor. (Again, as if he’s worthwhile.) This entire situation was confusing him to no end.

Finally, finally, after talking and asking questions, they put the photos aside. Dick wrapped him in a warm hug and started making hot chocolate for them, while Jason went back to his case work. Dick asked him about his day, and the contest, and then- after seeing how wiped out he was- allowed the conversation to land in a comfortable silence. Tim closed his eyes, letting the sounds of pen scratching on paper and Dick moving around the kitchen wash over him. He feels tired, but a good kind of tired.

Peaceful.

He doesn’t get to be like that a lot.

None of them do, really, but for Tim him and this kind of silence have an interesting relationship. Because… because the Drake Estate could be considered peaceful, but when he thinks of it, all he ever saw was empty rooms and cold, dark halls. It was daunting. Cold. Barren. The air stifling, the minimalist rooms exhibiting a perfectionist’s touch, and above all so, so _quiet_. Tim had befriended the silence of that house years ago, but never quite came to peace with it. And even after living there all that time, with his parents slipping in and out like a revolving door, it still would get under his skin. Made him feel cold and scared and alone.

This silence is different. It’s quiet, but there’s signs of life. Peace strung together between one moment and the next: Jason pausing in his writing to crack his knuckles, Dick huffing to himself as he accidentally spilled cocoa powder on the counter. Tim smiled to himself and looked down at his hands, fiddling with the photos he held. _What’d I do to deserve this?_ He finds himself wondering. This _happiness_ , this warm feeling in his chest. This _home_.

Tim thinks that he’ll probably ask himself that question forever. That the novelty of having people be there and care about him will always seem foreign. Dick smiles at him and hands him a warm mug, filled to the brim with hot chocolate. He then pulls him tightly to his side, whispering an _‘I’m so proud of you, buddy,’_ in his ear. Jason looks up at them, nodding in agreement with quirked lips. Tim beams at them, both of them, and leans into the touch.

If the photo contest brought all this on… then maybe it wasn’t such a waste of time after all.

Especially if it means his family coming to the next one.


End file.
